Michelin tyres need replacing after 4k miles ?

drofluf62

Took Ford Cmax in yesterday with puncture.

Tyres all replaced at same time two years ago with mid cost Michelin. Tracking done at same time. No problems noticed in steering.

Told the front two had worn down and had to be replaced. Clear to see wear on one edge of the tyre. Tread had also gone from 8 mm to 4mm in two years. Car only done 4400 miles in that time. Does home to station journeys only on good A roads. Nothing else bar a couple of motorway drives up North.

Totally shocked. Garage also shocked but as they did the tyres themselves checked their records including mileage and confirmed.

So big unexpected bill.

No idea what to do. Is it likely the tyres are faulty? Could the tracking done at the time have been wrong? They suggest pot holes to blame but no major incidents, just the usual, and nobody else we have spoken to has heard of tyres going at that mileage.

Totally confused about where to go ... But it just isn't right ... Is it?

We have both been driving 35 years. Have rarely needed new tyres. And do not drive in anything like a mad way. Probably the opposite.

Herzlos

I'd get the tracking checked again, because it could have easily been knocked out by a pothole. I wore out a tyre in under 1000 miles on my new car because the tracking was way off.

I doubt it's a tyre issue if the wear is all on the edge, but more likely a tracking/suspension issue. After 2 years you'd have an uphill struggle to get any money back on them.

AdrianC

Has the alignment been checked again? Not just tracking, but castor and camber, too.

If the wear is uneven across the width, alignment is the obvious cause.

TonyMMM

Tyre wear is affected by driving style, road conditions, vehicle size/power/weight and particularity wheel alignment but if the wear is even across the tyre that rate that does seem excessive.

If the wear is on the edge it does sound like an alignment/suspension problem - might not have been set properly when they were fitted, but equally could easily have been knocked out anytime since by hitting a kerb/pothole. The garage should be able to tell you if the alignment is out now ?

I've just replaced a pair of (front) Michelin tyres - they were down to just under 3mm and had done 26k. Rear ones still fine at about 5mm.

ariba10

I would get the front suspension checked.

There is more to tyre wear than tracking.

Strider590

drofluf62 wrote: »

Took Ford Cmax in yesterday with puncture.

Tyres all replaced at same time two years ago with mid cost Michelin. Tracking done at same time. No problems noticed in steering.

Told the front two had worn down and had to be replaced. Clear to see wear on one edge of the tyre. Tread had also gone from 8 mm to 4mm in two years. Car only done 4400 miles in that time. Does home to station journeys only on good A roads. Nothing else bar a couple of motorway drives up North.

Totally shocked. Garage also shocked but as they did the tyres themselves checked their records including mileage and confirmed.

So big unexpected bill.

No idea what to do. Is it likely the tyres are faulty? Could the tracking done at the time have been wrong? They suggest pot holes to blame but no major incidents, just the usual, and nobody else we have spoken to has heard of tyres going at that mileage.

Totally confused about where to go ... But it just isn't right ... Is it?

We have both been driving 35 years. Have rarely needed new tyres. And do not drive in anything like a mad way. Probably the opposite.

I don't understand.............. Why would you need new tyres at 4mm?
If someone suggested I needed new tyres at 4mm, i'd think they were taking the p1ss and go elsewhere.


When the new tyres were fitted, did you adjust the pressures?

Usually they shove about 45PSI into new tyres to help them seat properly on the wheel, especially on large tyres fitted to alloy wheels.
Having too high pressure in your tyres will drastically increase tyre wear.

When I get new tyres fitted, I check and adjust the pressures as soon as I get home.


Also sometimes when garages do a wheel alignment, if they're just doing it to make some extra cash, they might not bother setting it up to the manufacturers specifications and simply go for a completely parallel setup, which can cause excessive tyre wear. So if your car has ever been near a Crapfit garage (or similar), the chances are pretty good that they bodged the alignments.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

There is another possibility, frequent short journeys, including tight turns onto drive on full lock.

On a motorway tyres last forever, the more steering you do the more you wear tyres, and parking and tight turns onto drive are killers for tyres which is where they get scrubbed.

I'd still suspect alignment issues, but "challenging" tyre use should not be discounted.

On my van which does a gazillion short delivery journeys and is hopping on and off drives and getting into tight spots at people's home, it eats front tyres. The cars tend to do longer journeys (but not permanent motorway cruising) and so I see 20-30k with the main wear coming on the driving wheels.

AdrianC

Strider590 wrote: »

I don't understand.............. Why would you need new tyres at 4mm?
If someone suggested I needed new tyres at 4mm, i'd think they were taking the p1ss and go elsewhere.

I read it as main tread down to 4mm, shoulder balding.

But I'm sure the OP would have noticed that before taking the car in with a puncture...

Strider590

^^ Lets not also forget speed bumps, the ones you have to straddle, they can increase tyre wear and by the same reasoning so can driving on roads that have a heavy camber to them.

2/3 tread wear in 4000 miles (I really hope it's not a diesel), on a car that's not exactly a lightweight, I don't think that's all that bad.

bigjl

Couple of points to add.

Small diesels can be hard on front tyres.

Clio DCi being one.

If the wear is on both the inside and outside edges then I would suspect the tyre pressures were too low for a significant period of time.

My wifes Clio can wear out a set of fronts, inside and outside edges, in a little as 12k. And that is down to the 1.6mm, that is with 5mm left on the rest of the tyre.

Joe_Horner

One more point to add:

The shoulders of most modern tyres are made with much shallower tread than the rest of the tyre - often a couple of mm or more difference. Those areas are allowed to be worn completely smooth in use and the tyre is still legal.

Tread depth only matters in the "main grooves" - the oones that contain wear indicator bars. For most current tyres that's the 3 or 4 main longitudinal grooves, with anything outside those not counting. The MOT manual even has a note nowadays to explain this.

So, it's quite possible that they've "safety-pressure" sold a pair of tyres that really didn't need changing.